That's pretty obviously what the article is about -- if it was going to take you $10k to license closed source software, why not pitch $1500 to make the docs you need that the open source alternative doesn't have?

Though at first I thought here was an open source hacker trying his best to hide his begging for handouts, it's actually much better than that. In fact, it's a great idea. He simplifies a number of considerations (like db admin, training, etc, costs) when doing his cost-benefit analysis sample, but unsimplify and you're golden, so to speak.